The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, may be forced to undergo emergency surgery after he was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Wednesday complaining of abdominal pain. Bolsonaro, 66, was reportedly admitted to a military hospital in the capital Brasília at about 4am, after being struck down by an unremitting bout of the hiccups which has lasted for more than 10 days. On Wednesday afternoon the presidency announced that Brazil’s leader was being transferred to São Paulo after Antônio Luiz Macedo, the surgeon who operated on Bolsonaro after he was stabbed shortly before his 2018 election, diagnosed him with a bowel obstruction. In a statement, the presidency said additional tests would be carried out in São Paulo, which is home to some of Brazil’s top medical centres, to determine whether Bolsonaro needed emergency surgery. A photograph of a topless Bolsonaro lying on a hospital bed, with a man who appeared to be priest touching his right shoulder, was published on the president’s social media accounts alongside the message: “God willing, we’ll be back soon. Brazil is ours.” “Pray for our president, today and always,” one of his ministers, the evangelical pastor Damares Alves, tweeted as Bolsonaro received treatment in Brasília, where he was reportedly sedated. The state of Bolsonaro’s health has been the subject of growing media speculation in recent days after Brazil’s far-right leader made a succession of public appearances in which he visibly struggled to speak. During a trip to southern Brazil last Friday, Bolsonaro reportedly had to abandon a dinner after feeling ill. In a recent social media broadcast, Bolsonaro said his hiccups problem had started after he underwent dental surgery on 3 June, and blamed it on drugs he had been prescribed. The Folha said Bolsonaro had undergone a series of surgical procedures since his election-trail stabbing, an event many believe helped propel him to the presidency. Less than two months later he won a landslide election victory against his leftwing rival, Fernando Haddad. In recent weeks Bolsonaro has been plunged into what analysts call the worst moment of his two-and-a-half-year presidency, with his popularity in freefall amid mounting public anger over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and failure to secure sufficient vaccines. More than 535,000 Brazilians have been killed by an illness Bolsonaro has trivialized as a “little flu” and polls suggest Brazil’s president will fail to win a second term in next year’s presidential election.